An inductor, an electronic component, is a representative passive element configuring an electronic circuit, together with a resistor and a capacitor, to remove noise. The inductor is combined with the capacitor using electromagnetic properties to configure a resonance circuit amplifying a signal in a specific frequency band, a filter circuit, or the like.
As information technology (IT) devices, such as various communications devices, display devices, or the like, have been rapidly miniaturized, research into a technology for miniaturizing and thinning various elements, such as inductors, capacitors, transistors and the like, that are used in these IT devices has been continuously conducted. Accordingly, the inductor has also been rapidly replaced by a chip having a small size and a high density and capable of being automatically surface-mounted, and a thin film type inductor in which a mixture of magnetic powder and a resin is provided on coil patterns formed on upper and lower surfaces of a thin film insulating substrate by plating has been developed.
The thin film type inductor is manufactured by forming the coil patterns on the insulating substrate and then filling an outer portion of the insulating substrate with a magnetic material.
In accordance with the development of portable devices such as smartphones, tablet personal computers (PCs), and the like, the use of a dual-core or quad-core advanced processing unit (APU) having high speed and a wide display has increased. However, existing ferrite inductors may not provide a sufficiently rated current required for dual-core or quad-core APUs and wide displays.
Therefore, metal-composite inductors in which metal powder having good direct current (DC)-bias characteristics is mixed with an organic material have been mainly released over the past two to three years.
Because metal generally has a large eddy loss in alternating current (AC), it is not generally used in a high frequency band. However, a composite may be manufactured by turning the metal into powder having a small particle size. Insulating surfaces of the powder have small particle size, and mixing the powder having the small particle size with an organic material decreases eddy loss. Therefore, the composite may be used even in a frequency band of 1 MHz or more.
However, one problem associated with the above-mentioned insulation processing is that an insulating layer preventing electricity from being conducted hinders a flow of magnetic flux, and thus high magnetic permittivity may not be obtained.